If that is a big issue to you (and I can see why it could be), I would advise getting Reaper. The license is still very cheap and the learning curve for just doing basic recording takes is virtually non-existent.

Maybe Ableton will introduce it in the next version. I think a lot of people would be annoyed if they didn't.

I do a lot of vocal recording in Live, and it's a massive pain in the arse. But out of sheer laziness I'll record a take in Arr. view then drag it over out of the way to the right & then do another, etc. Then drag them all into new tracks to audition once I'm done recording.

edit- this becomes much trickier if you're working on parts rather than a full take though

Or Reason/Record, or Logic, or Reaper, or Studio 1, or Garageband(!) or .....

or Pro Tools (gasp). Yeah, unfortunately you'll need another program to do vocal comping. Workarounds have been mentioned before, but wouldn't be that effective in terms of having a fast, streamlined, efficient workflow - which is the whole point.

I just learned that Reaper is made by Justin Frankel, author of Gnutella & WinAmp. He projects a very user friendly attitude, trying to keep in touch with users and constantly improve the software. It will be interesting to see how Reaper evolves.

Really hoping for improvements to the Arrangement page in Live 9 but I'm beginning to think that having traditional DAW functions are just out of the question. After all, it's not a DAW, it's a sequencer. An audio sequencer, but still a sequencer.

Yeah you're right. I was just throwing that out there as a half assed comment. It's definitely a DAW, but there's always that conflict between a live performance sequencer and a full blown production suite. They've done a pretty good job improving the features over the years in terms of DAW functions, I just think it still has room for improvement in that area. I use Live every single day and still love it though.